The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1887-10-06
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Weekly Discourse of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher

tohot seest thouf and said, plumb line
Amos vii. s.
The solid masonry of the world has to me a
fascination, Walk about some of the trium-
phial arches and the cathedrals, 400 or 600
years old, and see them stand for centuries,
as erect as when they were builded, walls Of
great height not bending u quarter Of an
inch this way or that. So greatly honored
were the masons who bulded these walls that
they were free from taxation and Gale" free"
masons. The trowel gets most of the credit
for these buildings, and its clear ringing on
stone and brick has sounded across the ages
But there is another implement of just as
much Importance as the trowel, and my text
recognizes it, Bricklayers, and stone masons,
and carpenters in the building of walls, use
an instrument made of cord, at the end Of
which lump of lead Is fastened They drop
it over the side of the wall, and as the plum
met naturally seeks the centre of gravity
in the earth, the workman discovers
where the wall recedes, and where
it bulges out, and just what is the perpendicu-
lar. Our text represents God as standing on
the wall of character, which the Israelites
had built, and in that way measuring it.
And the Lord said unto mo, Amos what
seest thou? and | said, A plumb line"
What the world wants is straight up and
down religion, Much of the so-called piety
of the day bends this way and that to suit
the times. 1t is horizontal with a low state
VI stltlntnu anu 1llOTdS. we nave all Deen
building wall of character, and it is glar-
ingly imperfect and needs reconstruction
How shall it be brought into the psrpendicu-
larf Only by the divine measurement. "And
the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest
thous and said, A plumb line"
The whole tendency of the times is to make
us act by the standard of what others do.
If they play cards, We play cards. If they
dance, we dance. If they read certain styles
of books, we read them. We throw over the
wall of our character the tangled plumbline
of other lives and reject the infallible test
which Amos saw. The question for me should
not be what you think is right, but what God
thinks is right. This perpetual reference to the
behavior of others, as though it decided any
thing but human fallibliGy, is mistake as
wide as the world. There are 10000 plumb
lines in use, but only one is true and exact,
and that is the line of Gods eternal right.
There is mighty attempt being made to re-
construct and fix up the Ten Commandments.
To many they seem too rigid. The tower Of
Pisa leans over about thirteen feet from the
perpendicular, and people go thousands of
miles to see its graceful inclination, and by
extra braces and various architectural con
trivances it is kept leaning from century to
century. Why not have the ten granite
blocks of Sinai set little asant! Why not
have the pillar of truth a leaning tower9
Why is not an ellipse as good as a squared
Why is not an oolique as good rs straight up
and down? My friends, we must have a
STANDARD; hall it be Gods or mansi
The divine plumb-line needs to be thrown
over all merchandise. Thousands of years
ago Solomon discovered the tendency of buy
ers TO depre late goods. He saw aman beat
ing down an article lower and lower, and say
ing it was not worth the price asked, and
when he h I'd purchased at the lowest point he
told everybody what sharp bargain he had
struck and how he had outwitted the mer-
he l. tS h 10
naught, saith the buyer, but when he is gone
his way then he boasteth" So utterly askew
is society in this manner that you seldom find
seller asking the price that he expects to
get He puts on higher value than he pro
poses to receive, knowing that he will have
to drop. If he wants fifty he asks seventy
five And if he wants 900 he asks $500 ut
is naught," saith the buyer 1.-The fabric is
defective; the style of goods ispoor; can get
elsewhere better article at a smaller price;
it is out of fashion; it is damaged it will fade;
it will not wear we'll" After while the
merchant, from over persuasion or from de.
sire to dispose of that particular stock Of
goods, says: "Well, take it at your own
price and the purchaser goes home with
light step and calls into his private office his
confidential friends, and chuckles while he
tells show that for half price he got the goods.
In other words, he lies and is proud of it.
Nothing would make times as good and the
earning Of livelihood so easy, as the univer-
sal adoption OF the law of right. Suspicion
strikes through all bargain making Men
who sell know not whether they will ever
get the money Purchasers know not
whether the goods shipped will be in accord
ing to the sample. and what, with the large
number of clerks who are making false entries
and then absconding to Canada and the ex-
plosion of firms that fail for millions of dol.
lars, honest men are at their wits end to
make living. He who stands up amid all
the pressure and does right is accomplishing
something toward the establishment Of high
commercial prosperity. l have deep sym
pathy for the laboring classes who toll with
hand and foot But we must not forget the
business men who, without any complaint OF
hammered professions through the street, are
enduring stress of circumstances terrific.
The fortunate people of to-day ara those who
are receiving daily wages or regular salaries
And the men most to be pitied are those who
conduct business while prices are falling
and yet try to pay their clerks and employees
AMI are in such fearful straits that they
would quit business tomorrow if it were moi
Tor the wreck and ruin of others. Wher
people tell me at what ruin ously low price
tney purchased an article 1t gives me more
dismay than satisfaction. / know it mean.
the bankruptcy and defalcaton of men il
many departments The men who toll with
the brain need full as much sympathy a.
those who toll with the hands. All bushes;
life is struck through with suspicion, and
panics are only the result of want of conf
dence
The pressure to do wrong is all the stronger
from the fact that in our day the large bust
ness houses are swallowing up the smaller
the whales dining on bluefish and minnows
The large houses undersell the small ones be
cause they can afford it. They can afford t.
make nothing, or actually lose, on some style
OF goods, assured they can make it up OF
others So great dry goods house goes out
side of its regular line and sells books at cost
or less than COST and that swamps the book
sellers; or the dry goods house sells bric-a- bra
at lowest figures, that swamps the small
dealer in brc-a-brac. And the same thin
goes on in other styles Of merchandise, am
the consequence is that all along tn
business streets of all our cities Their
are merchants of small capital who ar
in terrific struggle to keep their head
above water. The Cunarders run dow
the Newfoundland fishing snacks. This
nothing against the man who has the bi
store, for every man has as large a store an
as great business as he can manage. T
feel right and do right under all this pressur
requires martyr grace requires divine SUP
port, requires celestial reinforcement. We
there are tens of thousands of such me
getting splendidly through. They see other
going up and themselves going down, bu
they keep their patience and their courage
and their Christian consistency, and after
while their turn t. success will come. III
owners of the big business will die and the
boys will get possession of the business an
with cigar in the mouth, and full to IL
chin with the best liquor, and behind a pa
of spanking bays they will pass everythin
on the turnpike road to temporal and etern
perdition. Then the business will break III
and the smaller dealers will have fair oppo
tunity. Or the spirit of contentment an
right feeling will take possession of Il
large firm, as recently in the case
A. A. Low & Co, and the firm wi
say: 1--WE have enough money for all OIL
needs and the needs of our children; now, Il
us dissolve business and make way for 9th,
men in the same line" Instead Of ber
startled at a solitary instance Of magnanr
ity, as in the case just mentioned. it will b
come common thing. l know of scores
great business houses that have had their o
portunity of vast accumulation, and wi
ought to quit. But, perhaps, for all the da
of this generation the struggle of small hous
to keep alive under the overshadowing pre-
sure OF great houses will continue; therefor
taking things as they are, you will be wise
preser We your equilibrium, and your honest
and your faith, and throw over all the cou
tiers, and shelves, and barrels, and bogshead
and cotton bales and rice casks, the measu